


Under Pressure

by pterawaters



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Homecoming, Meeting the Parents, Multi, Season/Series 03, Triad Verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 05:24:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3965995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny and Catherine are eager for Steve to return from Tokyo, with or without Shelburne. Danny thinks that maybe <i>without</i> Shelburne would've been better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under Pressure

Danny wakes up when he rolls onto his back and his right foot slips off the mattress. It's light enough out that it's probably past six, so he rolls back toward the center of the bed and says against bare skin, "You're doing it again."

"Hmm?" Catherine asks, pulling Danny's arm so it drapes over her shoulders and settling her back against his chest.

"Running me off the bed," Danny says, readjusting so he doesn't have as much hair in his face. "You get cold?"

Catherine murmurs, "Mm-hmm." She kicks a foot away from Danny, toward the empty half of the bed. "Missing our space heater."

His bladder something he can no longer ignore, Danny untangles himself from Catherine and slides out of bed. When he gets back, Catherine's asleep again, starfished out in the middle of the bed.

Deciding to have some fun, Danny climbs into bed and settles himself between Catherine's legs and kisses her nose. Her face wrinkles up, but shortly relaxes into a smile. "Morning."

"G'morning," Danny replies, pressing his lips to Catherine's. He kisses her slowly, really taking his time, because yeah Danny misses Steve, but Steve is also kind of greedy with Catherine's time. As he breaks the kiss, Danny pushes back his hair and smiles at Catherine, grateful when she smiles back at him. "You wanna?" he asks.

Catherine laughs, but nods and pulls Danny back down. "Yeah, I wanna. C'mere."

Before Danny can even kiss Catherine again, his phone rings. He groans, wanting to ignore the call, but what if it's Steve? What if something's gone wrong during his seven hour flight? Then Catherine's phone starts ringing, too. Danny throws himself to the side, saying, "The world hates us this morning."

Catherine reaches over and picks up her phone, telling Danny, "It's my CO. They must need me on base."

As Catherine takes the call, Danny picks up his phone, and sees that he's missed the call from an unknown number. He calls it back, "Detective Williams."

"Danny?" Kono sounds like she's been crying, which instantly has Danny's heart up in his throat.

"Kono, what is it?" he asks, hopping out of bed and grabbing the closest pair of pants that look to be his size.

"It's Delano," she says, pausing to cough. "He had Malia shot. She's dead."

Danny's heart drops from his throat all the way down into his shoes. "My god…"

Catherine's snapping her fingers, so Danny turns his attention to her. She covers her phone's mic and says, "Wo Fat escaped."

Danny sighs. This is not the morning he thought he was going to have. He asks Kono, "Where are you? I'm coming to you."

~*~

Danny and Catherine pull up to the hangar at Hickam a few minutes before Steve's plane is supposed to land. "I'm just glad he's not coming in dark this time," Danny says, his voice pulling Catherine's attention from its thousand-yard stare.

"Yeah," she says, reaching over to put her hand over Danny's. "I'm just– I can't believe Wo Fat got away like that."

Danny motions to the others in the hangar. "Well, SWAT's here for extra security. Let's hope they're enough to keep Shelburne safe."

"Wo Fat got his armored truck plucked off the road and dumped into the ocean by helicopter," Catherine says with a scoff. "If I had my way, we'd have Shelburne in the brig on the carrier where I work, three thousand sailors between him and Wo Fat."

Looking over at Catherine, Danny furrows his brow. "You think you could get that cleared with your, uh, higher-ups?"

Chuckling, Catherine shakes her head. "No. The Admiral could give a rat's ass about Shelburne, whoever he is." She turns further in her seat to face Danny. "You're sure Steve didn't tell you anything about Shelburne when you talked to him?"

"He wouldn't," Danny says with a sigh. He reaches forward and puts his hand on the side of Catherine's face. "The line wasn't secure."

"Pffft," Catherine scoffs. She leans her head toward Danny's hand. "At least it'll be nice to have Steve back on the island."

Chuckling, Danny pulls Catherine into a kiss. "I'll finally have some help keeping up with you."

Giving Danny another kiss, Catherine laughs and opens the driver's side door, slipping out of the car.

Danny exits the passenger side door and follows Catherine to the mouth of the hangar, where Steve's plane is pulling up. Danny rests his hand at the small of Catherine's back for a moment before removing it and putting his hands in his pockets. There's no telling who this Shelburne person is, so Danny figures it's better to err on the side of professional.

As the plane stops moving and the people inside start moving around, Catherine says, "When do you think we should tell him about the…" She turns toward Danny and frowns.

"Uh, when he needs to know?" Danny suggests.

Catherine nods, crossing her arms, her eyes on the opening door of the plane. "Yeah. When he needs to know."

The first person off the plane is Steve, who Danny has to admit he's extremely relieved to see uninjured and in the flesh. The next person of the plane is an older woman, which was not what Danny was expecting. Steve sees Danny and Catherine right away and nods toward them, before leading the woman over.

"What's going on?" Danny asks.

Catherine nods and adds, "On the phone you said you were bringing Shelburne back."

Steve points to the woman. "Yeah, this is Shelburne."

Holding out her hand toward Catherine first, the woman says, "You can call me Mom. Someone should."

As Danny takes his turn shaking the woman's hand, he asks, "Mom? Whose mom?"

"That would be mine," Steve says, raising his hand in the air and waving with a thoroughly unamused smile.

Before Danny can ask what the hell Steve is talking about, the woman introduces herself. "Doris McGarrett."

Danny shares a look with Catherine as she says, "Catherine Rollins." She doesn't look like she has any better of an idea what's going on than Danny does.

"Uh, Danny Williams," Danny says, demanding answers from Steve, who shakes his head.

Catherine's staring at Doris, like she's trying to see the family resemblance. "Wow."

Danny sees it right away in Doris' amused expression, like she's looking at two ants she can't wait to mess with. Doris McGarrett is alive. Holy shit. "You know, for a woman who died in a car bomb, you are remarkably well put together."

"Thank you," Doris says with a smile that looks a little more genuine. "I'll take that as a compliment. Good boyfriend points to you, Danny."

What the… Danny sends a wide-eyed look to Steve. How much did Steve tell his mother about them? And he couldn't even warn Danny and Catherine over the phone that he was bringing his mother home with him? Danny was not prepared to deal with this. Not at all prepared!

"And Catherine," Doris says, taking Catherine's hands in hers. "No rings? How is anyone supposed to tell you're together? I mean I can tell, but," she smiles over at Steve in that judgemental way only a mother can, "I'm very good at what I do." Catherine's eyes go so wide Danny thinks they might pop out, and her cheeks flush bright red.

Steve takes a deep breath, his nostrils flaring, and then clears his throat. "Sorry to interrupt here." Steve's matter-of-fact face is the one he always uses when he tries to get Danny to change the topic of conversation. "Danno, Cath, I appreciate the homecoming, but what's with the police presence? You didn't have to go to all this trouble."

Catherine and Danny take turns explaining about Wo Fat's escape and the need to protect Shelburne – Steve's freaking mother – from him. Of course, Steve mentions contacting Chin, at which time Danny and Catherine share a look, before Danny fills Steve in about Malia's death. Steve can't count on Chin right now, not today, which means he needed to know about what had happened.

After everything has been explained in enough detail to satisfy Steve, they head toward the car. Steve holds out his hand for the keys, and as Danny hands them over, he hisses at Steve, "How much did you tell her about us?"

"Nothing," Steve replies, his shoulders up by his ears. "I swear! She guessed!"

Danny frowns and gets in the back seat with Catherine, because there's no way he's going to sit in the front between Steven and his mother. It turns out to be a good instinct, because as soon as Steve's attention is on the call he's taking from the Governor, Doris turns in her seat to look back at them. "So, how long have you three been together?"

"Uhh," Danny says, looking to Catherine, who luckily steps up.

Winning smile on her face, Catherine replies, "A while."

"I want details!" Doris insists, her smile just as winning as Catherine's. Danny feels like he should tell Steve to pull over just in case this conversation comes to blows. "Three months? Three years?"

"Closer to three months," Catherine says, which might be true. Danny's lost track of all the time Steve was with Catherine and not him, or with him and not Catherine. It's true that they hadn't become a real triad until recently, and Catherine just got transferred to Pearl Harbor full time a few weeks ago. In fact, their first date together as a triad was only about eight months ago, at the governor's fundraiser gala.

"Still," Doris says with a wave of her hand. "No primer couple rings? No commitment rings? How are people supposed to know you're not single?"

"They could ask," Danny points out, which gets him a mom-glare the likes of which he's never seen before.

Turning her attention back toward Catherine, Doris smiles. "All I'm saying is that you don't have forever. Before you know it, you're almost too old to have kids!"

Catherine presses her lips together and looks over at Danny, her eyes widening as they beg him for help. Danny flounders for a moment, before saying, "Well, I've already been married once, so we've been taking it slow. Making sure we get it right."

"You've been married before?" Doris asks, giving Danny a look up and down. "Got any kids?"

"Yeah, I do," Danny says, unable to keep from his face the slight smile that always crops up whenever his daughter is mentioned. "I have a daughter. Her name is Grace. The best thing that ever came out of my marriage."

"But why the hesitation to get married again?" Doris asks, and this conversation is getting more and more infuriating by the minute. "Don't you want your daughter to see you in a healthy relationship?"

Danny can't do it. He can't hold his tongue any longer. "Respectfully, I don't think you're in a position to be giving me parenting advice."

Catherine gasps and clamps her hand down on Danny's wrist, and Danny's stomach drops. Shit. He's never been good with in-laws. Never.

Doris opens her mouth, but Catherine gets there first, saying, "You make some very good points, Doris, and I'm sure the boys and I will discuss it at length very soon."

"Yes, well," Doris says, deflating a little. Danny will have to ask Catherine how she does that. "In any case, I'm glad my son has people who love him. You know, you three remind me a little of when John, Joe, and I were young. Of course, we had children by the time we were your age, so…"

"We have Grace," Catherine says, like that's going to stop Doris. "And I have my career with the Navy."

"Excuses," Doris says, waving her hand.

Before she can get any more digs in, Steve exclaims, "Son of a bitch!" His rant about the governor nicely overshadows the conversation about getting married and kids and Danny sits back, folding his hand into Catherine's and waiting for the other shoe to drop.


End file.
